ThePolemicist

Former college professor, native and denizen of NYC. Blogging at www.thepolemicist.net, aiming to be intellectually rigorous, politically challenging, and occasionally snarky, from a left-socialist perspective.

Great article. Nailing Bernie on the implicit arrogance of a stance in which an American Zionist politician is preaching to Muslims about how they must get their house in order. Spot on.

Sanders was such weak tea on many issues. He should have hammered Hillary on Libya, but he let her get away with the whole “Gaddafi was about to murder everyone” narrative, and her mendacious assertion that regime change was authorized by some collective decision. The phrase I recall most from him was something like, “Of course, Secretary Clinton is right….”

The carnage in Gaza this summer reveals the continuity of the crimes of Zionist colonialism.

In response, liberal Zionists often fall back on the notions that Jews are unique and eternal targets, who must have a state of their own, as a kind of global safe room to protect themselves. Irrespective of any ostensible topic of rational discussion, non- and anti-Zionists are often seen and felt as implicitly harboring at least a disregard for the existential safety of Jews, and probably a secret desire to pounce on them once their safe room is unlocked. See analysis at:: Gaza Calling: It’s the Colonialism, Stupid!

Take a look at this post, riffing on “Exodus” – the movie with Paul Newman that provided what Edward Said called “The main narrative model that [still] dominates American thinking” about Israel” for a whole generation, and whose memes still are still circulated widely in the culture by influential members of that generation.

It’s interesting that the film is never shown now, and I think that’s because it actually presents some of the nastier elements of the Zionist strategy, which makes it much more problematic as a vehicle for promoting Zionism to a younger generation. It emphatically demonstrates, for example, the hypocrisy of Israel’s complaints about “human shields.”

The memes have gone off the rails, and the younger members of these congregations have a completely different “lived relation” to Israel and Zionism.

Another fine piece my Max Blumenthal. “Fighting retreat” is a perfect phrase. At Max’s NYU talk, one Jewish kid got up and said, something to the effect that: “As a progressive on campus now, I just assume that I have to be pro-Palestinian. I guess that’s a big change from five or ten years ago.” And the crowd in the big lecture hall murmured assent at what he said. Zionists are increasingly in the minority now among progressive students, and on the defensive. PEP is completely discredited. Of course, the opposite in national political and media culture and the Zionists have tremendous power to hurt a lot of people in order to slow the momentum. It’s particularly disturbing to see what Max recounts about how vulnerable Palestinian students, who have to go back home, are. All the more reason for American students and faculty to fight back and fight on.

Yes, let’s put some pressure on these guys and gals. I think de B’s attempt a secrecy indicates “the increasing discomfort that’s in the air, even in New York, with this kind of toadying to Israel.” And de Blasio wasn’t content with being Mr. Peace Now. He was hobnobbing with the guy even Israelis consider a fascist — Avigdor Lieberman. Surely liberal New Yorkers can take him to task for that.
See my post on this at Keep on Truckling: Mayor of New York’s job “is to be a defender of Israel”

Infuriating, but not surprising. Israel has been integral to NSA surveillance for a long time, and in fact provided some of the crucial hardware. Furthermore, a “mid-level employee, apparently with close connections to the country” — in other words an Israeli spy — stole the NSA’s “advanced analytical and data mining software.” and passed it to Israel. Unlike Private Manning or Edward Snowden, this actual spy was not prosecuted under the Espionage Act or any other law. His spying was just ignored, and treated by the NSA as no big deal. Indicating the complete immunity America grants Israel.
For a detailed account of the NSA-Israel relationship, see:"Just One More Detail":American Surveillance And The Unanswered Question of Israel